Different business entities (e.g., involved in negotiation of a large contract) may use different identifiers and nomenclatures to refer to particular pieces of data. However, referring to an identifier native to a first business entity may result in confusion to a second business entity. Conventional systems do not provide for a reconciliation of these particular pieces of data.
Group purchasing organizations (GPOs) are organizations which negotiate contracts with suppliers on behalf of their members. Members of the GPO are typically healthcare providers and/or distributors. GPOs representing a large number of organizations can generally negotiate contracts with greater power than what a single individual organization could negotiate. For example, an individual healthcare provider may be able to negotiate a five dollar price per box of adhesive bandages, while a GPO could negotiate a three dollar price per box of adhesive bandages, as the GPO purchases in larger quantities.
However, the contracts negotiated by the GPO may be complex. The GPO contract may identify multiple products and multiple healthcare providers. In addition, any one of the multiple healthcare providers may have multiple addresses for various facilities. Further, a given product within the GPO contract may have multiple prices based on the healthcare provider purchasing the product. For example, within the same GPO contract, Hospital A may purchase 1,000 boxes of adhesive bandages at $4 per box, and Clinic C may purchase 50 boxes of adhesive bandages at $4.50 per box. While Clinic C is still able to save by purchasing through the GPO, Clinic C is not able to save as much as Hospital A does, as Hospital A purchases in larger quantities. The various prices may be reflected by a tier ranking system by the GPO.
In order to facilitate the negotiation and execution of such GPO contracts, a contract facilitation system may be used. In an example context, the contracts may be between healthcare providers and suppliers, and the contract may specify a product, a price, and a quantity to be delivered to the healthcare provider at a particular location. All business entities associated with the contracts (e.g., GPOs, healthcare providers, and suppliers) may access a single, central system (or distributed system) where commitments are tracked, using the contract facilitation system. Electronic collaboration among the business entities streamlines the commitment process and tracks history. Optimized price notification between all business entities may be provided in a timely, automated fashion. Thus, the contract facilitation system provides healthcare providers greater visibility into the entire contract process, from proactive notification of new contracts through approval steps and price activation dates.
However, the contract facilitation system is subject to various shortcomings. The contract facilitation system allows GPOs to publish their contracts for suppliers to review before healthcare providers are involved. The larger system also allows GPOs and suppliers to work together to review contracts, agree to eligible participants, and offer terms for delivery to healthcare providers. However, there may be confusion with respect to identifiers used by different entities. GPO contracts are tied to healthcare provider addresses, such as hospital addresses. GPOs may issue GPO-specific identifiers to the healthcare provider addresses, and the GPO-specific identifiers may be arbitrary and not indicative of the provider address. Suppliers may also issue arbitrary supplier-specific account numbers to the healthcare providers and their addresses. From the GPO perspective, a supplier-assigned account number is not sufficient to properly identify a healthcare provider address. Likewise, from the supplier perspective, a GPO-assigned identifier of a hospital address is not sufficient for the supplier to properly identify the healthcare provider address. In short, a GPO's view of information regarding a set of information is not the same as a supplier view of the same information. The healthcare provider itself views the information yet with a different view. Despite this, the contract facilitation system displays the addresses of the healthcare providers as GPO-assigned identifiers, and the suppliers viewing the contracts are unable to readily determine the address of the healthcare provider without performing an extensive and costly manual cross-referencing.